Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/129

 1559-] SHAN a NEIL. 109 of God ; for this is the best thing the rhymer causeth them to do. 1 The fourth sort are those which in England are called Poets. These men have great store of cattle, and use all the trade of the others with an addition of pro- phecies. These are maintainers of witches and other vile matters to the blasphemy of God and to the impover- ishing of the commonwealth. ' These four septs are divided in all places of the four quarters of Ireland and some of the islands beyond Ireland, as ' the Land of the Saints/ l the ' Innis Buffen/ ' Innis Turk/ ' Innis Main/ and ' Innis Clare.' These islands are under the rule of O'Neil, and they are very pleasant and fertile, plenty of wood, water, and arable ground and pastures, and fish, and a verv temper- ate air. 2 ' There be many branches belonging to the four septs as the Gogath, which is to say the glutton, for one of them will eat half a mutton at a sitting : another called the Carrow; he commonly goeth naked and carrieth dice and cards with him, and he will play the hair off his head ; and these be maintained by the rhymers. They be blasphemers of God, and they run from country to country sowing sedition among the people. They are common to all men ; and if any of them happen to be 1 Arran, outside Galway Bay. 2 At present they are barren heaps of treeless moors and moun- tains. They yield nothing but scanty oat-crops and potatoes, and though the seas are full of fish as ever, there are no hands to catch them. The change is a singular commentary on modern improve- ments.
 * There is a set of women called the Goyng women.